Amazon fires rage in Roraima, Brazil’s northernmost state

Photo: Ibama

The area of Brazil affected by fires grew 410 percent in February compared to the same month in 2023, according to data compiled by MapBiomas, a deforestation monitoring platform. In the first two months of 2024, 93 percent of the area affected by fires was in the Amazon rainforest.

Most of these fires occurred in Roraima, where Governor Antonio Denarium has decreed a state of emergency in 14 of the state’s 15 municipalities. The federal government has also acknowledged the state of emergency, allowing municipalities to request funds for food baskets, drinking water, and water truck rentals.

As The Brazilian Report showed last week, Roraima has been hit by a record number of forest fires over the last few months.

The drought caused by the fires has compromised running water for thousands of people, rendering the service unstable. On Monday morning, the sky of Boa Vista, Roraima’s capital, was filled with smoke.

Felipe Martenexen, a researcher at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (Ipam), said in a statement that the increase in fires in Roraima is directly related to the current El Niño episode, which intensified the dry season from December to April.

“Most of the vegetation affected by the fires in Roraima occurs in the lavrado, a region characterized by the presence of grassland vegetation,” he said.

Fires also increased in Brazil’s Cerrado savannah by 147 percent compared to February last year. Most of the fires took place on land used for pasture and agriculture.